Julia Mutale

Zambia

Year(s) attended: 2009

Tonga Beadwork

Upon graduation from high school, Julia was selected to attend the University of Zambia, earning a degree in development studies and economics. But her passion for arts and crafts led her to work with Save the Children, the European Union, and USAID carrying out rural development projects in education, sanitation and infrastructure, as well as crafts development.  She later married and joined her husband in running a pottery and handicrafts business.  A member of the Tonga tribe, Julia was inspired by her work with Zambian crafts and the traditional beaded garments she saw at the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market to research the traditional garments of her tribe. Through research, museum visits and conversations with a great aunt, she has learned to do basic beadwork and has assembled a collection of traditional beadwork. Such beaded garments, as well as cowrie shell adornments, are still used in some Tonga ceremonies marking events such as birth, adolescence, initiation, thanksgiving, marriage and death.